"Your Living Canvas" online workshop...amazing!

I have been taking an online workshop with Christy Tomlinson called "Your Living Canvas" and let me tell you it has been a great experience for me.

I have really wanted to delve into art journaling and it has been a struggle since I am not one to just sit and create without purpose. This workshop not only inspires me to sit and create but the content is also a meaningful journey into yourself.

I encourage everyone to at least check it out and see if it is something that you might need in your life. The 6 week workshop is available for a full year so you can do it at your own pace. This is especially good for me because I was not able to follow along while it was "live."

Out of respect for Christy and Art (her co-teacher) I will not divulge any pertinent information like workshop subjects or exercises. I will simply let your eyes to the wandering. Enjoy!

The cover and following pages are only 1 1/2 classes worth of work (I told you I was behind).

 This is the book I used.

 

Final Week of Doodles Unleashed

I have finished the final week of Strathmore's Online Workshop - Doodles Unleashed. Here are the results....

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

Final Piece

Week 3 of Doodles Unleashed

Sorry for the delay in posting. This past weekend I was in Myrtle Beach at a dance convention with my daughter. Fun weekend but alas no art.

This week I have been catching up on homework and getting ready for a trip to Portland.

However, I did manage to eek out a little bit of time yesterday and today to complete Stathmore's Online Workshop Doodles Unleashed with Traci Bautista Week 3. Here are my results...

 Stage 1

 Stage 2

 Stage 3

 Stage 4

 Final Piece

This is a doodle page we will be using in the final workshop next week. 

Exciting News!!

I just received the most wonderful and validating email ever! A Marketing representative from Strathmore Papers contacted me about using my painting from Workshop 1 Week 1 (see below) in a video for their homepage!!!

I know it isn't exactly like being published or having a gallery showing but it is incredibly exciting for me. I am looking at is as the first step on my road to being a "real" artist!

Thanks to the creative mind of my husband I have named it "Primordial"

Art Journal All Year

A few months ago I happened upon one of the neatest people I have never met! I am not sure how I found Elsie Larson and her blog but I did and it is a veritable wonderland of all things vintage and awesome! If you know me personally you are probably thinking..."You like vintage things? I would have never known!" It's true, there is very little about my outward appearance or my surroundings that display the funky cool person that lives inside my heart. But alas, I do love vintage stuff.

Anyway, yesterday is was browsing A Beautiful Mess and found that Elsie and her pal Rachel are offering an Art Journal All Year eCourse for $30!

So what's the big deal you may ask? Well I have "journaled" off and on throughout by life but never art journaled before. I always have good intentions but can never make the leap into that world. I guess it is like any blank page to an artist or writer.....very scary! Plus I was never really sure what to put in an art journal. Where do I start? What is it about? What is the purpose? What do I do with it when I am finished? Will I ever look at it again? I could go on but I am sure you get the idea.

Elsie's course is all online and can be accessed forever (yay, no printing!). It consists of 52 weekly prompts. Prompts is definitely something I can do!!! All 52 prompts are available when you sign up so you can go at your own pace. Everything about Elsie is inspiring to me so this seemed like a good time to finally take that leap.

I will be doing one page a week and will post my efforts here. To protect the ownership of the course I will not be sharing the prompts only the work I do.

Week 1 - Art Journal All Year

Material Used:

Used book - $1

Magazine ad from craft magazine

Red Lead Stamp Pad - Sihouette Flowers

Tim Holtz Distress Stamp Pads - Forest Green, Broken China

Copic Markers - various colors

White Uni-ball Signo pen

Micron Pens - .005, .02, .05

Various cut out images

Smooch Accent Spray - Gold Glow

I started with a used book distressed the edges Broken China, then glued down the full page magazine ad. I loved all the doodling and colors already present in the ad and felt it was a good place to start for me. Then I stamped the flowers at the bottom (using one of the stamps I shared last post) with Forest Green. I added the castle, Eiffel Tower, dream definition, and vintage swimmer images. Next came journaling and my own doodling.

Like most things I create, I like some of it and some I don't but it's my first page and I have decided not to stress about it. I am just going to go with the flow and what ever comes of this little project at least I know I tried!

New work as promised

I am super excited to share my first piece from the Strathmore Online Workshop Series - Doodles Unleashed by Traci Bautista! If you are in a rut, have trouble with abstract painting, have control issues, or just want to learn a new technique you have to check out this workshop. It's free to, so no excuses!

It took me two days to complete this piece for a couple of reasons: 1. This type of thing is way out of my comfort zone. Freely drawing anything goes against my sense of order. 2. I spent a lot of yesterday getting back into the blogger groove and preparing for all the new challenges. 3. Life, you know the routine...chores, dinner, business, dance (my daughter, not me), etc.

So here it is presented in stages. I am not going to go into too much detail here because if you are really interested in the process.....go take the class (nudge, nudge, hint, hint) :)!

Stage 1

 Stage 2

 Stage 3

 Stage 4

 Stage 5

 Stage 6

 Stage 7

 Stage 8

 Stage 9

Final Piece

Materials Used: Water color paper (10"x14", 140#, cold pressed), Smooch Accent Sprays, acrylic paints, DecoColor Opaque Paint Markers, Copic Markers, oil pastels, Uni-ball Signo Broad white pen, India ink, various size paint brushes, stencils, feather, small dowel, rubber bands, chain, clothes pin, and a paper drink umbrella

Process: building of layers with paint and doodling

Result: new skills and techniques, patience, and fun!